Nov. 20. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



493 



tinctive marks of each belnj? carefully noted. I 

 possess the last, in quarto, 1588. F. S. Q. 



THE MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY OF WAPPING : BISHOP 

 ANDREWS AND HIS SCHOOLFELLOWS. 



(Vol. vi., p. 410.) 



That Wapping was at one time the abode of 

 science and literature receives some countenance 

 from what I am about to state respecting its ad- 

 joining fragrant and elegant rival, RatclifF High- 

 way. In Lewis' Topographical Dictionary (art. 

 *' Stepney"), when speaking of the Coopers' Com- 

 pany's School in the hamlet of Ratcliffe, it is stated 

 that here " Bishop Andrews and several other dis- 

 tinguished persons received the rudiments of their 

 education ; " which quotation is partly confirmed 

 by the Rev. Peter Hall in his preface to the 

 bishop's Preces Privatce Quotidianm (Pickering, 

 1848) : 



" Natus videlicet nee parentibus locupletibus, nee 

 stirpe iiobili, grammatiees rudimenta in schola Rat- 

 cliviana, deiii iucrementa philologiae in Academia Lon- 

 dinensi Mercatorum Scissorum, aceepit." 



Will you allow me, therefore, instead of attempt- 

 ing to answer the above Query, to found upon it 

 another, namely, whether any of the " other dis- 

 tinguished persons" referred to are known to 

 fame ? This question possesses some interest at 

 the present time from the species of resuscitation 

 which has recently taken place in that once cele- 

 brated school, the archives of which are singularly 

 destitute of any trace of its former memorabilia. 



A. ^v. 



Kilburn. 



I am rather surprised to read IMb. Sydney 

 Smirke's Note under this head, and I should sup- 

 pose his notion of Wapping must be formed from 

 such a cui-sory view as is obtainable from the deck 

 of a steamer, on a trip to Dover or Ramsgate. Is 

 he aware that the neighbourhood of Wapping 

 comprises several streets and squares of private 

 houses occupied by the merchant seamen of the port 

 of London, by whom the High Street of Wapping 

 is resorted to for the necessaries of life as much as 

 the more splendid shops at the west end of the 

 town are by the residents in that locality ? and 

 that, in the neighbourhood in question, every 

 tenth shop, or thereabouts, is that of a maker of 

 such mathematical instruments as are principally 

 used in navigation ? such shops being usually dis- 

 tinguished by their sign of a figure of a naval 

 officer using the requisite implements for " taking 

 an observation : " it being moreover to be ob- 

 served, that many of these shops are nearly in the 

 same condition, even as regards their shop fronts, 

 as they have been for a century or more. Is it 

 then at all remarkable that there should have been 



"a Mathematical Society of Wapping" in the year 

 1750 ? and is it not most probable that there may 

 be a similar one now, or more likely several, of one 

 or other of which every assistant and apprentice in 

 the trade is likely to be an enrolled member ? I 

 do not know that such is the case, but I certainly 

 should look for such a society in that neighbour- 

 hood, rather than either in " Belgravia " or " Ty- 

 burnia." M. H. 



KEV. PETER (henry) LAYNG : " THE ROD," A POEM. 



(Vol. vi., p. 317.) 



I have a copy of this poem, for which your cor- 

 respondent E. D. has searched without success. 

 The title is " The Rod, a poem in three cantos, by 

 Henry Layng, Fellow of New College, Oxford : 



' Ponite erudeles iras, et fiagra, magistri, 

 Fceda ministeria, atque minis absistite acerbis. 

 Ne mihi, ne quseso, puerum quis verbera eogat 

 Dura pati, neque enim Lachrymas aut dulcis alumni 

 Ferre queunt Musjb Gemitus.' 



Vida Poet., lib. i. ver. 238. 



Oxford : printed by W. Jackson in the High 

 Street, 1753, 4to., pp. 46." 



The following is the argument which precedes 

 the poem : 



" King Alfred, having established the English eon- 

 stitution, sends an embassy to all the learned academies 

 of Europe to invite over the most eminent philosophers, 

 having before erected and endowed several public 

 schools for the propagation of learning. Amongst them, 

 Seotus was the most renowned : to him Minerva ap- 

 pears in the form of Priseian, the celebrated Gram- 

 marian, and discovers to him the figure and use of the 

 Rod. She warns him to be discreet in the exercise of 

 it. He neglects her advice, is passionate and cruel. 

 Aribat, a youth of nineteen years of age, resents such 

 cruel usage, especially as it exposed him, he conceived, 

 to his mistress's contempt and resentment. He resolves 

 to enter into a conspiracy against him. Seotus renews 

 his cruelty, and is assassinated. The story is founded 

 on true history. See Inet's History of the English 

 Church, pp. 288, 289." 



The poem is written with considerable humour 

 and spirit. I give the following as a specimen, 

 taken at random, being the description of the 

 birch tree : 



" A tree there is, such was Apollo's will, 

 That grows uncultured on the Muses' Hill, 

 Its type in Heav'n the blest Immortals know, 

 There call'd the tree of Science, Birch below. 

 Tliese characters observ'd thy guide shall be, 

 Unerring guide to the mysterious tree. 

 Smooth like its kindred Poplar, to the skies 

 The trunk ascends and quivering branches rise ; 

 By teeming seeds it propagates its kind. 

 And with the year renew'd it casts the rind ; 

 Pierc'd by the matron's hand, her bowl it fills, 

 Scarce yielding to the vine's nectareous rills. 



